Cardiovascular System and Health Promotion

This assignment is going to be based on the structure and function of the cardiovascular system and how homeostatic mechanisms work with the system to regulate it. The many functions of the heart will be recognised, but the main focus will be on the regulation of heart beat. Various Health Promotion initiatives will then be looked at in context to how they help people maintain a healthy heart and how successful these initiatives are in doing this. At some point, a definition of homeostasis and a definition of health promotion will also be given. Throughout the assignment, my own personal thoughts and accounts will be given to demonstrate the workings of the cardiovascular system and how effective health promotion is in reality.

The cardiovascular system consists of two components. Firstly there is the heart and secondly the blood vessels. The heart is a muscular organ which is about the size of a fist and is cone shaped, according to Mader (2006). It is situated in-between the lungs directly behind the sternum. There are three layers of tissue that make up the heart according to Waugh and Grant (2006); the myocardium, which makes up the largest proportion of the heart and consists largely of cardiac muscle; the endocardium which consists of connective tissue and the pericardium, which consists of two sacs and secretes a small amount of lubricating liquid to ensure that the heart can work without extensive damage (Hills 1988).

The heart works along with the blood vessels to form the system for the flow of blood around the body. These blood vessels form two pathways; one pathway of blood vessels through the lungs is called the pulmonary circuit and the other pathway to the rest of the body is called the systemic circuit (Cohen and Taylor 2005). Within both of these circuits there are veins and arteries. The veins are blood vessels that take blood towards the heart and the arteries take blood away from the heart (McCall and Tankersley 2007).

Within the...